612 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
[Larus argentatus.] Var. occidentalis Cours, Key N. Am. Birds, 1872, 312 (excl. 
syn. borealis Brandt and cachinnans Pallas); Birds Northwest, 1874, 633 
(monogr.). . 
Larus argentatus . . var. occidentalis Cours, Check List, 1873, no. 5476: 
[Larus argentatus] c. occidentalis Cours, Birds Northwest, 1874, 626 (synonymy). 
Larus argentatus occidentalis CovEs, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 7, 1877, 25 (Lower 
California). . 
Larus argentatus var. occidentalis HunsHaw, Rep. Orn. Spec. Expl. W. 100th 
Merid., 1876, 276 (Santa Cruz Island, breeding; San Francisco Harbor). 
Larus fuscus (not of Linneus) SaunpDErRS, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1875, 158 
(Magdalena Bay, Lower California; crit.). 
LARUS ARGENTATUS Pontoppidan. 
HERRING GULL. 
Adults in summer (sexes alike).—Head, neck, rump, upper tail- 
coverts, tail and entire under parts, including axillars and under 
wing-coverts, immaculate pure white; back, scapulars, and wings 
uniform pale gray (between pale and pallid neutral gray), the ter- 
tials, secondaries, and proximal primaries tipped with white (the 
white about 25.5 mm. in extent on secondaries and not sharply 
defined); outermost primary with outer web black, becoming gray- 
ish basally, abruptly tipped with white, this rarely interrupted or 
broken by a more or less distinct subterminal black bar; second 
primary (from outside) abruptly tipped with white, the subterminal 
portion black; third, fourth, and fifth primaries similar, but the basal 
half or more pale gray (like ‘‘mantle’’), this increasing in extent to 
the fifth and extending farther on inner web than on outer, the 
‘‘wedge”’ thus formed abruptly defined against the subterminal 
black; sixth primary pale gray, broadly tipped with white, and 
crossed by a broad subterminal space of black, widest on outer web; 
seventh primary similar, but the black more restricted and confined 
to outer web; remaining primaries broadly tipped with white but 
without any black; bill yellow, the mandible with a subterminal 
lateral spot of red; iris silvery white to pale yellow; bare orbital 
ring yellow (in life); legs and feet flesh color (in life). 
Adults in winter.—Similar to summer adults, but head and neck 
(except throat and foreneck) streaked with dusky grayish brown. 
Young.—Predominant color grayish brown, nearly uniform on 
under parts of body, the head and neck streaked with whitish, the 
upper parts variegated by an irregular spotting of pale grayish 
buffy, many of the feathers margined with the same; primary 
coverts, primaries, and rectrices very dark grayish brown or dusky, 
narrowly tipped with whitish, the two or three outer rectrices (on 
each side) more or less mottled basally with whitish; bill pale flesh 
color or fleshy white basally, blackish terminally, sometimes (in 
younger birds) mostly blackish; iris brown; legs and feet pale flesh 
color. 
